Week 4 Training Recap:

Tuesday 2/17: Boot Camp Class. I ended up a little bit late but I still got in a quality workout with lots of upper body focus and core work.

Wednesday 2/18: 3 mile run with strides. I have a nice trail near work that I run during lunch, so I decided to use it after work. I didn’t realize that the trail was NOT cleared so it was a few inches deep of snow! Regardless, I got it done and it was a SLOW GO. I really had a lot of fun!

Thursday 2/19: Thursdays are for hill runs…and I was “lucky” to have this run in 17 degree weather! I did 6 x 30 second hill repeats in the blistering cold, which was pretty interesting. After that I was able to finish up my 4 miles at a really good pace. I felt great!

Friday 2/20: Rest day! I had a special lunch with my female engineering coworkers so I missed out on Cardio Kickboxing.

Sunday 2/22: The snowy weather from Saturday forced me to move my 5-mile long run to Sunday. While I thought the weather would be more favorable, it was a complete mess with all of the puddles and slush! I actually slipped early in my run and hurt my foot, but it thankfully did no damage. I was able to finish over 5 miles with around an 11 minute average pace! I tried to consciously slow down the last few miles because I felt I was going too fast.

Monday 2/23: Rest day. I had a dental appointment after work so I shuffled my runs around for this week.

Tuesday 2/24: Boot Camp Class, which had a lot more cardio than usual. I really love how much my form for squats and planks has improved! After that I ran 3.25 miles on the treadmill. Unfortunately, my shins were NOT feeling it at all, so I had to take 3 walk breaks. But after my run, I made the time to stretch my hips, do clamshells, one legged deadlifts, and donkey kicks.

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Running in the snow!

Week 4 Report Card:

Cherry Blossom Training is going pretty well and I’m so excited with my progress after each week passes. I will say though that I did not work as diligently on my strengthening exercises this past week. My days at work have been really long, so when I add a run on top of that, I’m completely spent when I finally have time to be still! I have been foam rolling after my runs, but I’ve been neglecting my hip stretches and glutes. I need to make the time for prehab!

Another thing…I was supposed to get some fuel to start using on my long runs as advised by Coach Kristy. When I trained for the Rock and Roll Philly Half, I used Clif Shot Bloks and they were great! Unfortunately, I haven’t bought any yet since they are WAY too expensive on Amazon right now…so I need to stock up ASAP!

So I will give week 4 a B+! I’m just so thankful that everything has been going so well.

How has your training been lately? What are you looking forward to in the next few weeks?